I have been collecting folk recordings, mostly by artists from the United States and the British Isles, for about 40 years. This blog is intended to share a few of these recordings (all believed to be Public Domain under EU law where this blog originates) and make them available online for research and scholarship in accordance with the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. § 107. Also included are links to other interesting blogs, websites, and freely available folk audio and video.

Dienstag, 7. Dezember 2010

It sure sounded "Country" (with the canned applause and everything) and
must have given GDR citizens a similar feeling as when watching Marlboro
commercials on West German TV -- even though hardly anyone could
understand the lyrics and despite the fact that in 1985 none of the
musicians were likely to "ever play in Texas" and that it was next to impossible in the GDR to be "a thousand miles away from home waitin' for a train"....

I'm told (from a reliable source at WikiLeaks) that a take of "Don't Fence Me In" was
attempted, but aborted by the Stasi "observer" in the studio....

Montag, 6. Dezember 2010

Back in 1996, while going through my non-Dylan records, I came across an
album, I hadn't listened to for quite a while (maybe because on first
listening I had deemed it too "scholarly" and too far removed from the
poignancy of Woody's and/or Dylan's talking blues).

I honestly believe that (besides Harry Smith's "Anthology of American Folk Music",
also on Folkways) this is one of the major single sources of Dylan's
early repertoire and that some of the Guthrie talking blues were learned
"second-hand" from this album.

The album contains a total of 15 talking blues, of which 6 are by Guthrie or at least Guthrie-related ("Talking Union" is the old Almanac Singers song and Pete Seeger might have contributed to this one along with others in the group besides Woody):

Other songs from Greenway's album contain lines paraphrased in early Dylan talking blues:

"eatin' hog eye. Love chittlins."(Greenway, "Original Talking Blues") "He's eatin' pizza. He's eatin' chitlins'..."(Dylan, "I Shall Be Free") "There ain't no use of me workin' so much, I got a gal that brings me the mush...""There ain't no use of me workin' so hard, I got a gal in the white folks' yard..."(Greenway, "New Talking Blues")"Oh, there ain't no use in me workin' so heavy, I got a woman who works on the levee...."(Dylan, "I Shall Be Free")

What really gives this album away as an almost certain source for some of Bob Dylan's early repertoire is "Talking Subway"
(Woody Guthrie):

Of the eleven stanzas, according to the liner notes,
"the
first four may be found in a small collection of Guthrie's songs, issued
in 1947"
("American Folksong," edited by Moses Asch).

BUT: "The last seven stanzas were obtained by Dr. Greenway from Guthrie at a
later date and have never been published or recorded before."

The striking similarities between "Talking Subway" and Bob's "Talkin' New York" are too numerous to list here.

Therefore, I just want to concentrate on images found in the last
seven (never before published) stanzas, which crop up in similar form in
Dylan's song:

"Talking Subway:"

"Well, I got me a job in this man's town..."(5th stanza) "Talkin' New York:"
"Well, I got a harmonica job..."(5th stanza)
"...I finally got a job in New York Town."(6th stanza)

"Talking Subway:"
"Well, I joined the union to win my rights..."(7th stanza)
"You got to join the union, got to pay your dues..."(11th stanza) "Talkin' New York:"
"Even joined the union and paid m' dues."(6th stanza)

In addition to these rather blatant "borrowings" from "Talking Subway","Talkin' New York" even contains imagery derived from other songs on Greenway's album.

"But they got a lot of forks 'n' knives, and they gotta cut somethin',"
echoes lines from "Talking Butcher":
"'Cause he wants to cut me with that butcher knife. He got fire in his eyes. Boy! He wants to cut."

Greenway's
album even seems to have influenced Dylan as late as 1965:
Just compare
these lines from "New Talking Blues" (originally recorded by Chris Bouchillon in 1928) to
the well-known chorus of Dylan's "Tombstone Blues:"

"Mama's in the pantry fixin' up the yeast, Sister's in the kitchen preparin' for the feast..."

Frankly, I consider itrather "sloppy" research by Todd Harvey, who cites my 1996 article (on p. 103 of hisThe Formative Dylan), but fails to correctly identify Tom Glazer's "Talking Inflation Blues", referring to it by its rather common (albeit wrong) title in Dylan collectors' circles as "Talking Lobbyist" and "origin unknown" -- all it would have taken him to come up with the CORRECT TITLE would have been consulting the liner notes to the Greenway album (which were quoted by me).

In the light of "scholarship of such magnitude", I am certainly not offended, when Todd Harvey (farther down on the same page) dismissesmy 1996 findings, seemingly altogether, by claiming:

"In order for Greenway to be the basis of 'Talkin' New York', however, we must agree that Dylan was influenced by one or more of the seven 'lost' verses...." (ibid.).

I truly think that I have proven JUST THAT (with several examples) - additionally, the paraphrasing of imagery from "Talking Butcher" for another line of "Talkin' New York", the exact sequence of three songs from Greenway's album in one of Dylan's earliest recorded performances, and the obviously persisting influence of songs from this album up to 1965, makes Todd Harvey's dismissal of my findings rather absurd and illogical -- he obviously did not even consult the source (liner notes) I quoted, but feels compelled to come up with a rather vague "theory" of his own (in order to not having to commit himself one way or another) :

I was just alerted that the 1992 "Bobfest" (Bob Dylan's 30th Anniversary Concert) is online as streams from NL.Given the fact that Dylan content is "closed down" left and right all over the net, this might be your last chance to watch this extraordinary tribute concert. The third segment includes footage from the rehearsals for that event.

I have embedded links to the streams -- none of the material is hosted on this site!

TRACKS MARKED AS "OMITTED" COULD NOT BE INCLUDED BECAUSE OF THEIR COPYRIGHTED STATUS (first release in 1960s or later).THEY CAN BE FOUND ON THE EXCELLENT UNCLE DAVE MACON BOX-SETBY BEAR FAMILY RECORDS.

Donnerstag, 25. November 2010

Finally found a copy of the film "The Columbia" by the U.S. Department of the Interior/Bonneville Power Administration Woody Guthrie was hired to provide songs for at archive.org.

Description:
"Historic look at the Columbia River and its development. Woody Guthrie was hired by BPA in 1941 to write the songs for this movie, but its production was delayed by World War II. Produced in 1949 in black and white, this film contains rare footage of Grand Coulee Dam construction, Indian fishing at Celilo Falls and the 1948 Vanport flood."

"In early May of 1941, Woody Guthrie was employed by the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) on the Columbia River. The BPA hired him to write songs celebrating the work of the Administration in building dams producing and making available to millions cheap electricity. Guthrie wrote 26 songs during the month that followed, including such classics as Pastures of Plenty and Roll on Columbia.

Michael O'Rourke produced this radio documentary for Oregon Public Broadcasting. In 2000, a documentary film on the same subject was produced by the University of Oregon's Knight Library Media Services and the School of Journalism and Communication. For information on the film (and additional information on Guthrie's Columbia River songs, see: http://libweb.uoregon.edu/ec/wguthrie/index.html."